It is required that printing devices that perform marking in tires are included in equipment that tests and inspects completed tires, such as tire uniformity machines that measure the non-uniformity of tires or balancing machines that measure the unbalance of tires.
In the printing devices, it is required that marks, such as circular shapes or triangular shapes, are dotted (marking is performed) at circumferential positions (phases) of a tire, which are determined from measurement results and criteria for determination, on a sidewall of the tire.
Various shapes and colors of the marks have been required in recent years, and a plurality of marks may be required for a tire.
As the types of positions where marking is performed in a tire, there are a type in which marking is required on determined phases of a tire, and a type in which marking is allowed to be performed on arbitrary phases on a sidewall.
In a case where a plurality of marks are formed in a tire, it is known that a plurality of marks are formed in a sidewall of a tire with positions being shifted from each other in a radial direction of the tire, and or a plurality of marks are formed with positions being shifted from each other in a circumferential direction. Increasing the number of marks by combining shifting the positions from each other in the radial direction of the tire and shifting positions from each other in the circumferential direction is also known.
For example, in Patent Document 1, as this type of printing device, a printing device has three marking pins, a supporting base that supports two heat transfer tapes (ink ribbons), an air cylinder that moves the supporting base, and an air cylinder that pushes out a marking pin toward a heat transfer tape that faces the marking pin.
As the air cylinder moves the supporting base, any one of the two heat transfer tapes faces the three marking pins.
One heat transfer tape is delivered from a first delivery reel, and is wound by a first winding reel (first winding roller) that is rotated by a first rotational driving device (roller driving unit). The other heat transfer tape is delivered from a second delivery reel, and is wound by a second winding reel (second winding roller) that is rotated by a second rotational driving device (roller driving unit).
In the printing device configured in this way, as the air cylinder pushes out each marking pin toward a heat transfer tape that faces the marking pin, the marking pin is pressed against the heat transfer tape and printing is performed in a tire.